


Forward Motion (Always Leads You Home)

by clotpolesonly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hale Family Feels, Laura Hale Lives, Sibling Love, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26586259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clotpolesonly/pseuds/clotpolesonly
Summary: “You sure you want to do this?” Laura asked. “You look like you’re about to vibrate out of your skin, and he hasn’t even gotten the tattoo gun out yet.”“You sureyouwant me to do this?”Laura frowned. “Why wouldn’t I want you to?”Cora bit her lip, ducked her head so that her hair fell forward to hide her face, and said, “I don’t know. It just… I guess, it just seems like ayou and Derekthing, you know? You two got them together and have had them for years. I wasn’t there for all that.”
Relationships: Cora Hale & Derek Hale, Cora Hale & Derek Hale & Laura Hale, Cora Hale & Laura Hale, Derek Hale & Laura Hale
Comments: 10
Kudos: 61
Collections: Laura Hale Appreciation Week 2020





	Forward Motion (Always Leads You Home)

**Author's Note:**

> we all need more Hale sibling feelings in our lives. there's plenty of angst around, so here, have some fluuuuufffff instead! for LHAW day 2!

It was a few months before things were quiet enough for them to do this. And another few weeks before anyone dug up the courage to broach the subject. None of them wanted to be presumptuous, and their new relationship was still too fragile for anyone to want to rock the boat.

In the end, it was Cora, always the bravest of them all.

“So those tats,” she had said one day, as casually as she could manage. “When’d you get those anyway?”

Laura had glanced over at Derek, shirtless and sweaty from their workout, the triskele standing out starkly against the pale skin of his back. Her fingers had found her own tattoo, a matching symbol inked onto her right inner forearm.

“About a year after the fire,” she’d said. “Had to find a sketchy artist who would let Derek get it when he was under 18, but it wasn’t like we were risking hepatitis or anything. We did the blowtorching on each other later.”

Cora had nodded a few times. “Cool, that’s… That’s cool.” She’d swigged the last of her water, tossed it aside, and thrown herself back up to the pull-up bar for another rep.

Laura and Derek had exchanged a look.

Now, here they were, in the same sketchy tattoo parlor that had given Scott _his_ tattoo. Cora’s leg was bouncing aggressively, but her face was a mask of determination. Beside her, Derek was hiding a smile behind his hand as if he hadn’t been every bit as nervous eight years ago. Laura reached around behind Cora to pinch him.

The tattoo artist came back before he could retaliate, sketch in hand to verify the design one last time. It was simple, just 3 solid black spirals. Cora still looked to the both of them for confirmation before giving the tattooist the final nod.

“You sure you want to do this?” Laura asked. “You look like you’re about to vibrate out of your skin, and he hasn’t even gotten the gun out yet.”

“You sure _you_ want me to do this?”

Laura frowned. “Why wouldn’t I want you to?”

For a moment, it seemed like Cora wasn’t going to answer. It wouldn’t be unusual; she wasn’t exactly the most talkative person to start with, and she had a habit of shutting down completely. Derek did the same thing sometimes, when he was upset or feeling vulnerable or afraid. Usually he would still talk to Laura, at least, eventually, but that was because he knew and trusted her more than anyone. Things were a little more complicated with Cora, after all the years they had spent apart—after all the years that Cora had spent _alone_ and fending for herself—but they were working on it.

Bit by bit, they were working on it.

The work showed when Cora bit her lip, ducked her head so that her hair fell forward to hide her face, and said, “I don’t know. It just… I guess, it just seems like a _you_ thing, you know? You two got them together and have had them for years. I wasn’t there for all that.”

It was a good thing that a heart breaking didn’t have a sound. Laura shared another look with Derek, her pain reflected back at her in his eyes. She had to swallow hard before she could speak.

“Cora,” she said, laying a hand on her sister’s thigh. “Do you know what this symbol means?”

The curtain of hair rippled, and Laura knew that Cora was rolling her eyes. “Of course I do. Alpha, beta, omega. We all learned it.”

“That’s one of its meanings,” Derek said. “It can also symbolize land, sea, and sky. Past, present, and future. Life, death, and rebirth.”

“But do you want to know what it’s always meant for us?” Laura asked. “What we were thinking about when we got our tattoos?”

Cora peeked out from behind her hair, reluctantly curious. “What?”

Squeezing her leg, Laura smiled and said, “Family, Cora. The three of us.”

Derek’s arm came down around Cora’s shoulder, pulling her in so that he could press a kiss to the side of her head. “Just because you weren’t there, that doesn’t mean that you weren’t with us.”

With a hitched breath that might’ve hid a sob, the tension fled from Cora’s shoulders. She slumped against Derek’s side and she took Laura’s hand in her own, threading their fingers together and holding on tight.

Laura squeezed back, eyes burning with tears. She wiped them away before anyone could see because she had a reputation to maintain and being that level of sappy was just not acceptable. The tattooist had finished setting up his station and laying out his equipment, and he definitely saw, but he seemed content to let them have their moment for now. He winked when he caught Laura’s eye.

She leaned against Cora and said, “At heart, the triskele is about motion. About moving forward.”

Cora’s “Yeah?” was muffled in Derek’s shoulder. He chuckled.

“Yeah. So maybe you weren’t with us in the past—”

“—but you’re with us in the present,” Laura finished. “And you’ll be with us in the future. That’s what this tattoo will mean to us now.”

Cora’s smile, when she emerged from Derek’s embrace, was watery, but bright and genuine.

“So,” Laura said. “You sure you want to do this?”

“More than anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr!](https://clotpolesonly.tumblr.com/post/629914124000903168/for-laurahale-appreciation-week-day-2-theres)


End file.
